LEE has extended his reach beyond Asia to the rest of the world on the strength of his dashing smile and cathartic, silent tears. That is the secret to his long and prosperous acting career. <Joint Security Area> brought the best out of him and enabled him to present himself as an actor who can deftly reveal emotions, not just a handsome star. As a result of this role he gained popularity across Asia. He joined the ranks of hallyu stars with his roles in <Beautiful D... expand

LEE has extended his reach beyond Asia to the rest of the world on the strength of his dashing smile and cathartic, silent tears. That is the secret to his long and prosperous acting career. <Joint Security Area> brought the best out of him and enabled him to present himself as an actor who can deftly reveal emotions, not just a handsome star. As a result of this role he gained popularity across Asia. He joined the ranks of hallyu stars with his roles in <Beautiful Days>, <All In> and <Iris>. He played strong characters in <Bungee Jumping of Their Own>, <A Bittersweet Life>, <The Good, The Bad, and The Weird>. Nowadays he seemed poised to conquer Hollywood. He portrayed a Hong Kong gangster, frantic over his missing girlfriend in <I Come with The Rain> and the secret warrior ‘Storm Shadow’ in the military action movie <GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra>. He demonstrated more devilish charisma in his war against a satanic archrival ([CHOI Min-sik]) in <I Saw The Devil> directed by [KIM Jee-woon]. LEE ascended to even greater heights following his starring role in the smash hit <Masquerade> which earned him a bevy of awards for his dual role as a Chosun era king and his double who must take control of the court. He next completed <G.I. Joe 2 : Retaliation>, and is currently filming <Red 2>, both of which were released in 2014. In 2015, LEE featured as an antagonist in Hollywood tentpole Terminator: Genisys, but also a pair of Korean films, the period action film <Memories of the Sword> and the hugely popular thriller <Inside Men>, for which he received the Best Actor prize from the Asian Film Awards in Macau. In 2016 he appeared in the US western <The Magnificent Seven> remake and Warner Bros’ Korean project <Single Rider>.

The Korean Film Festival DC returns this month for its 2019 edition, which will unfold from May 10 to July 1. This year’s event will feature 11 recent Korean titles as well as a pair of very special guests, acclaimed actress MOON So-ri and director JANG Joon-hwan. Screenings will take place at the Freer Gallery of Art, Meier Auditorium and the Korean Cultural Center in Washington, DC, as well as t...

14 years after news first surfaced that writer/producer David FRANZONI had acquired the remake rights of PARK Chan-wook’s classic film Joint Security Area (2000), the project is finally approaching a production start with FRANZONI set to direct and Ana DE ARMAS and Demián BICHIR attached to star. News originally surfaced that Franzoni, who is known for penning Steven SPIELBERG’s Amistad and Ridley...

In a recent interview with Korean news outlet Star News, director KIM Yong-hwa revealed that plans were moving ahead on a third and fourth installment in the smash hit Along with the Gods franchise. The director explained that DOH Kyung-soo has been confirmed to appear in the third installment and that the titles will be produced simultaneously in 2021. DOH Kyung-soo, a member of the popular music...

The Korean box office ended on a bang last year when December delivered by far the best results for Korean and overall sales for the month since records began. Some of that momentum carried through into the early weeks of 2018, but the first quarter of the year has been one of highs and lows, as a strong January was followed by a disappointing Lunar New Year holiday season in February, while March...

Box Office Report of 2017 The Korean film market reached new all-time benchmarks for income and admissions in 2017 after a strong December rally. Yet the real story behind the numbers was which unexpected films got audiences the most excited while several seemingly surefire hits stumbled out of the gate.With 219.87 million tickets sold when all was said and done, 2017 saw the Korean exhibition mar...

No new releases cracked the top five over the past weekend, which saw local titles claim back the majority share after briefly losing it last week to Hollywood. With the absence of strong new business, sales were down about 25% to 2.33 million with Korean productions accounting for 53% of those. After opening in second place last week, comedy-drama Keys to the Heart with LEE Byung-hun rose to firs...